Abused Term of the Day - Real Time

Isn’t all time real? Yet in the business world, we frequently use the term “real time,” as though there were also “fake time” or maybe “unreal time.”

In today’s busy world, we want our news as it’s happening – in “real time.” We want to chat online in real time and we’d like our brokers to track financial data in real time, so they can make sound investing decisions. We want “real time” data and we may tweet to share information in real time.

But the concept of real time is a bit surreal. If “real time” is the time when something actually happens, does it become “fake time” after it happens?